BWW Reviews: 'SWING!' at Senior Center for the Arts

Swing!, the energetic and high-spirited dance musical now onstage at Donelson's Senior Center for the Arts is an entertaining romp certain to delight audiences during its three-week run. Directed and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson, the Nashvillian probably best suited to take on the job, it's an affectionate tribute to the Swing Jazz era and offers audiences the nostalgic opportunity to remember when.

As good as Swing! is - and it is very good despite some dangerously frightening near-misses and a rather frenetic pace - one thing bothers me: Why did Adams-Johnson, borrowing a journalistic reference, bury her lead in the middle of the second act? Every journalism student learns in News Writing 101 that you never want to bury your lead; you want the most pertinent bit of information in your first paragraph. In the case of Swing!, you're offered tantalizing glimpses of the story's lead as soon as the curtain opens, but the show doesn't deliver the goods until well into the show's second hour.

"What the hell is he talking about?" you're wondering. Well, the show's highlight - and it truly is in every way - comes in Act Two when musical director Ginger Newman (who's onstage throughout, conducting her crackerjack band, an affectionate nod to the Big Band era) finally grabs the microphone and takes the spotlight to deliver the best number of the entire evening, "Blues in the Night." Newman, one of the best singers - nay, she is a "song stylist" in the very best sense of the phrase - to be found in a city filled to overflowing with singers, knocks your socks off with her powerhouse rendition of the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen standard. Forget any other version of the song you've ever heard, Ginger Newman's is the new standard. Period. Why in the world she wasn't given more to sing is beyond me, although I suspect it has something to do with her already impressive workload in the production. While the other singers in the show give outstanding performances and render some wonderful recreations of some of the best-known tunes of the swing era, Newman's performance eclipses every one of them with her sheer star power and stunning vocalization.

Conceived by Paul Kelly, featuring the music of some of the brightest stars of the swing era - including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and so many more - Swing! opened its Broadway run in 1999, with a cast featuring Ann Hampton Calloway and Laura Benanti, both of whom were nominated for Tony Awards, as was the show itself. Today, thanks to the success of television reality shows like Dancing With the Stars, it's entirely possible that Swing! is even more timely, and judging from the SCA audience's response on opening weekend, they obviously loved what they saw.

Adams-Johnson has brought together a talented cast to bring the show to life, Newman has assembled a talented band of players to provide them musical accompaniment and designer Lynda Cameron-Bayer has costumed the performers with a creative eye, capturing the swing era (primarily the 1930s and '40s) perfectly in her choices. A minor quibble, however: I would have preferred seeing some of the budget spent on tuxedos for the orchestra and it would have been nice if the black of David Williams' dinner jacket had matched the black of his trousers - but if I hadn't been seated so close to the stage, I might not have noticed.

As aforementioned, Swing! is filled with some of the best known songs from the era (it would be nice, though, if the program had included a listing of the musical numbers and the names of the individuals performing them), as if an episode of Your Hit Parade (an old television series that featured Nashville native Snooky Lanson, he of the Big Band era) were being staged before your very eyes. Before your imagination goes all snarky on me, both the Big Band era and Your Hit Parade were way before my time, but my fondness for swing era tunes and dancing goes way back.

Among the musical highlights of the evening: David Williams' show-opening "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing"; Stephanie Benton's' "Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce"; Amy Farrell's "Skylark"; and the John Pyka-led, all-male version of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B)" that gives the Andrews Sisters' version new competition.

Adams-Johnson's cast dances their hearts out to some terrific songs, including "Sing, Sing, Sing" (wonderfully played by Newman's band), and the Act One-closing tribute to the musical artistry of the Glenn Miller Orchestra that included "A String of Pearls" and "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo." Among the dancers, Rawsam Alasmar (one of the talented members of Music City Salsa), Faith Kelm, Summer Carter and Melissa Pardo deserve special notice, and Terry McLemore delights the audience with his second act tap and his comic turn with Pardo. And if an award were given to the cast member who perfectly captures the look and vitality of the swing era, I'd have to give it to Lauren Atkins, who looks as if she just stepped off a bandstand of the era, right after sending her beau off to do battle with Hitler himself.

Adams-Johnson's vision for Swing! is given the superb treatment of Teresa Porterfield's exceptional lighting design and Brad Kramer's design of the bandstand for the musicians. Hope Stuemke and Gordon Droitcour's sound design is generally well-conceived, although the sound mix for Deb Stolfus' opening musical number made it difficut to hear her lower notes; luckily her higher ones hit the mark beautifully.

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Swing! Original concept by Paul Kelly. Directed and choreographed by Kate Adams-Johnson. Musical direction by Ginger Newman. Produced by Jane Schnelle. Presented by the Senior Center for the Arts, Donelson. For ticket information and details about the company, visit the website at www.seniorcenterarts.org.

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